What Are Google Ads Extensions, And How Can They Help Your Business?

April 16, 2021

Google ads are exceptional business tools that give you a choice to bid on having your ad appear in pertinent searches made by your target audience. It’s no wonder they’re extremely valuable and competitive at the same time.

Although they can be expensive, they’re a worthwhile investment since numerous advertisers want their sites to emerge at the top.

Smart advertisers typically adopt techniques to gain a competitive edge. For some, this implies more bidding, while others implement tools such as Google ad extensions to enhance the efficiency of their ads. 

This post examines what ad extensions are and how you can benefit from them.

What are Ad Extensions in Google Adwords?

Ad extensions are simply your ad’s physical add-ons that offer new, pertinent viewer information. Generally, this information is static – such as a phone number. 

If you’re looking to create ads that are worthy of attention, you’ll need to develop ads with extensions, which append extra information regarding a business to the core body of the text ad. The extra information in the ad extensions seeks to add user value and perform well since they match user signals such as location or intent. Typically, an extension includes seller reviews, telephone numbers, and additional website links. 

Besides expanding your ad with extra information, extensions give users more reasons to select your business. You find that they usually increase your ad’s click-through rate by numerous percentage points.

You’ll come across automated ad extensions Google, whereby AdWords adds the extension information automatically to your ad. They include automated calling, click-to-call, and site link extensions. Others, however, are manual, which means you can decide to customize your ads per your preferences.

How to Add Review Extensions to Google Ads?

Review extensions are beneficial because they permit you to include reviews from awards, third-party sources, or positive press. Added reviews leave visitors with a positive impression while increasing their likelihood of clicking on your advert.

A review extension is manual, which means you get to select it and define the parameters. In this case, you’ll determine which review to feature and input the paraphrase or quote you’d like to show along with a link and credit to the source.

Remember, you can only include a review extension at a time regarding your business in general, not a particular service or product.

In order to increase the likelihood of obtaining review approval, the source must be credible. Google expects your review to originate from a precise, credible source that comprises a link to the publication or source site. Furthermore, you can’t link to a site that needs a sign-up or log-in to access, and the site shouldn’t be loaded with pop-ups. Things that result in disapproval include:

  • Using personal reviews
  • The use of in an imprecise review
  • The incorporation of an outdated review
  • Using an unacceptable format

Ensure you familiarize yourself with the necessary rules before determining which review to use. For instance, you might be tempted to use a Yelp customer testimonial, but it might not cut it on AdWords.

How to Add Extensions to Google Ads?

While ad extensions are an important feature of Google Ads, knowing how to add them makes all the difference. Fortunately, it’s easy to add them to your campaign. Throughout the ad development process, you’ll notice the option of ‘ad extensions’ beneath the first page where you develop the campaign itself.

Once you click on the extension you want to adopt, you can select from one that’s been set up already or develop a new one. Google will give you a preview, and you can proceed to develop the ad as you ordinarily would.

To generate extensions through the dashboard, locate ‘Ads & Extensions’ and click on ‘Extensions.’ You’ll notice a list of the various extensions from which to use, so click the ‘Create’ button and get started.

Each type of extension will need you to input different information, but several will permit you to input descriptions and URLs. Fill out each field with important information, even if it’s non-compulsory, so you can maximize the extension.

When developing varied extensions, you’ll notice the ‘Advanced Options’ tab beneath the page. These options allow you to tailor who’s viewing the extension. You can decide to permit mobile-only visibility or establish a calendar. The scheduling might work if you want to restrict information or actions, for instance, having an extension with sales prices even after the sale is over.

The procedure for adding extensions is as follows:

  1. Sign in to your ads account
  2. Open the search campaign
  3. Click on the tab for ‘Ads and extensions’
  4. Click the ‘Extensions’ link
  5. Click the blue plus-sign and choose the extension you want to include
  6. Select the ad extension and ‘use existing’ or ‘create new’
  7. Select ‘add to’ to the Campaign, Account, or Ad Group level

Types of Ad Extensions

There are various types of Google Ads extensions from which to choose. You’ll also notice that each has distinct benefits and can help drive particular user actions. Here’s a look at some and how they can help your campaigns.

Sitelink Extensions

These types of extensions in Google ads are comparatively popular but very useful if you want users to access important information fast. They’ll develop clickable, highlighted text along your ad’s bottom, sending users to various key pages on your website.

When developing these extensions, you can decide to maintain simplicity and feature hyperlinked text only in the form of headlines. However, if you want to offer additional user information, you can add extra descriptive text to each link.

You can use these extensions for virtually any ad campaign. When you use them for campaigns meant to draw users early in the purchasing cycle, they must comprise links to introductory information such as information on key services or products.

Use these extensions to show users the information they’re more likely to seek when making a buying decision and emphasize what makes you distinct. You’ll notice that these extensions are effective because they permit you to attract search prospects with deep links that direct them to particular pages across your site. Therefore, one text ad can help you match numerous distinct types of intent.

Call Extensions

The popular extensions function by featuring your business’s contact number above the ad, next to the site URL. They’re a good option if your bandwidth can handle an influx of calls from users who require reservations, appointments, consultations, or simply answers to fast questions. They don’t consume considerable space, and you should use them only when necessary.

Keep in mind that convenience is a major asset when people are in a rush, and mobile users usually are. After all, mobile searches have an instant need and are usually seeking something they require urgently. It’s worth noting that having this extension will determine whether visitors will visit your site or the competition. The only time you shouldn’t implement this extension is when you don’t want spontaneous phone calls.

Callout Extensions

When advertising in a competitive field, you must do whatever it takes to distinguish yourself from industry competitors. Call out extensions Google ads are somewhat different and newer. They generate CTAs within an ad but aren’t clickable. Instead, they function by allowing more room for information you wish to share in the ad.

These extensions work mostly to highlight the benefits of the services or products you’re advertising. Furthermore, the callouts can offer the needed information to distinguish you from the competition.

Price Extensions

As a consumer, you probably understand that price is a huge factor when determining whether to purchase something. When somebody views your text ad in the search outcomes, it’s not a guarantee that the person will click through to your site and track the pricing information.

It’s even worse if your competitor’s ad is positioned directly beneath yours and they’ve provided pricing information. In this case, a user will most probably click on your competitor’s ad. If your price is out of range from what a searcher is seeking, it’s okay. After all, you don’t want to pay a lot of money for clicks with no possibility of conversion; this extension can prevent this.

These extensions are ideal when you want to feature some key services or products in particular. While they might not be suitable for e-commerce stores with assorted items that have extensive price differences, they can be especially important if your low price is a selling point. Just note that you need to be careful with the price itself.

If your prices are fluctuating, ensure you’ve updated to prevent frustrated prospective customers. The last thing any potential customer wants is to see one price tag only to find a different one on the landing page.

Structured Snippet

These extensions capture users’ attention in a major way, which means a high likelihood of more clicks for you. Structured snippets permit you to generate clickable, hyperlinked headlines that direct users to key website pages and feature a rapid description beneath each one. You’ll discover they’re more visible, and the extra information beneath each link will increase the probability of pertinent clicks.

Promotion Extension

Promotions work to enhance purchase value or drive sales, making them essential marketing tools that numerous businesses lean on. You’ll notice Google Ads has generated extra ways to help you emphasize your best promotions to attract high-intent searchers pursuing a deal.

These extensions permit you to develop clickable extensions that will explain the sale fast and direct users to the designated landing page whenever they click on it. In case you have numerous sales taking place simultaneously, you can include numerous links to the extension for optimum effects.

Why Should You Use Google Ads Extensions?

google-ads-extensions

Google Ads Extensions

Extra Information

Extensions allow you to provide extra information that you might have forgotten to mention in your ad messaging. You can choose from numerous extensions to separate the information accordingly, for instance, call extension to drive business calls or review extension to provide user reviews.

Increase brand authenticity

The minute you incorporate business details, for instance, the location, users will be confident of your business’s authenticity. Consequently, users will deem your business trustworthy.

Mistakes to Avoid with Google Ads

Wrong Positioning of the Ad

Irrespective of the appeal and content, if you don’t position your advert in the right location, you’re at a disadvantage. The most popular positioning that attracts visitor clicks is at the page’s top, which draws a huge proportion of click-throughs for all site ads, while the common spot for advert positioning is the right-hand sidebar.

Your goal is to seek prominence during campaign construction. Remember, the page’s top is key, with the ability to make your ads more effective in drawing significant licks.

Improper Use of Ad Extensions

The capacity to implement Adwords to include links and extended information to your adverts could make the difference between a standard ad and a superior one. A report conducted by Blue Corona indicated that 90% of online users value online reviews. Therefore, you’d be disadvantaged if you don’t integrate a strong consumer rating concerning your advert.

Improper Keyword Researching and Inappropriate Keywords

Marketers make this common error. This is tricky because a brief tail keyword might initially seem like the appropriate choice, but a closer analysis will indicate that it’s too broad. In this case, you’d obtain numerous impressions and spend considerable money. It’s also likely that users will be disinterested in your product or service offering and won’t remain on your website for long.

The best thing to do would be to blend short and long-tail keywords and monitor the outcomes to determine effective and non-effective keywords. Nonetheless, if you have a broad keyword that’s driving clicks accompanied by a high CTR or click-through rate, it might be worth keeping. Just beware that broad keywords are costly.

You should equally examine the average session duration and bounce rate. For instance, if you discover that a keyword might be generating an excellent CTR, but the average session is 0-10 seconds, it’s a strong indication that whoever’s clicking on the ad doesn’t find it engaging. In this case, you want to pause the campaign and consider a different approach.

Leaving your account unmanaged

The worst thing you could do is to leave your account to function unsupervised. Remember, your campaigns need frequent management; otherwise, performance could deteriorate, resulting in increased costs.

It’s a huge error not to invest time in account management to optimize performance. Examine the keywords driving sales and traffic once you obtain sufficient data. Typical tasks comprise adjusting bid costs, evaluating search terms to include negative keywords, and including new keywords. If you lack the time for account management, consider hiring an agency to do it for you.

Final Thoughts

If you’re seeking an easy and efficient means of increasing your ad’s visibility, ad extensions are the way to go. What’s important is that you select the extension that’s relevant to your business and website. Most importantly, you want to test to see those that are yielding more results. 

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